Thursday, January 14

One-two punch terrorist attack on Jakarta; police/army now seem in control

This is a sophisticated complex one-two punch attack on Indonesia's capital involving more than a score of attackers. The nation's president has already classified the attacks as terrorist in nature. From a Tweet from what could be a reporter om the scene:

The Indonesian police eliminated four suspected militants who had carried out bomb and gun attacks in Jakarta, a police spokesman said.

The police are now "sterilizing the building from basement to top", spokesman Iqbal Kabid told journalists saying that the skirmish between security forces and terrorists was taking place in the cinema located in the same building as the attacked Starbucks cafe.

He added that the police were going to declare "the situation secure soon".

Several gunmen, having carried out a series of attacks in the center of Jakarta, are still hiding in a cinema, with many people believed to be inside, media reported Thursday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Earlier in the day, at least six people were killed in a series of explosions in the Indonesian capital after around 10-15 gunmen entered the downtown area on motorcycles, carrying rifles and explosives.

"It is believed that several gunmen are currently hiding in the Jakarta Theatre, a cinema near the affected area. A lot people are believed to be still inside. Police has the building surrounded," Al Jazeera’s reporter Step Vaessen said.

According to the journalist, there were at least six explosions which were likely to have been targeting the police.

The army was called in, according to Samantha Hawley, a journalist for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. [Pundita: Hawley tweets that tanks have arrived]

​The new blast occurred in a cafe near the Starbucks that had been attacked earlier, after an anti-terror squad stormed the cafe, an AP journalist said. Policemen and medical personnel were reportedly seen rushing to the scene after the explosion.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Explosions occurred in the Indonesian capital on Thursday, reportedly leading to several casualties.

"At 10:50 am [03:50 GMT] there was an explosion in front of Sarinah [mall]," Jakarta metropolitan police said via Twitter.

One of the explosions occurred outside the United Nations building in the city center.

According to Douglas, there have been a total of six blasts in Jakarta, one of them apparently carried out by a suicide bomber. [Punditaa: The suicide bomber theory seems to have been discounted by later reports that identified the blasts as grenades]

Photographs of the scene of the explosion outside the Sarinah shopping center, posted by the city police on Twitter, show three bodies lying on the ground.

At least six people were reportedly killed.

There also have been multiple reports of gunfire and at least one active shooter on the scene.

An ABC journalist [probably Australia's ABC] reported that the attackers came in on motorcycles throwing grenades.

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